BROOKLYN (CN) - The Levittown Union Free School District kicked a third-grade special ed student out of school after he and his mom became homeless, the mother claims in Federal Court.
The mother says she was diagnosed with breast cancer three years ago, and the combination of chemotherapy and radiation treatments incapacitated her, forcing her to accept disability. After a "series of health and economic hardships," the mother and her son were evicted in March 2008, and have been living in the basement of the child's grandmother's house since then.
The mom says her own mother refused to give her a lease and offered "virtually no privacy" in the basement accommodations. So, the mother says, she lacks a legal address and relies on local charities for her son's food and clothing.
She says that East Broadway Elementary School decided that her situation does not meet its definition of "homeless," so her son is not protected by the McKinney-Vento Act and New York State Education Law.
The Assistant Superintendant of Levittown's School District mailed her a letter in November saying her son could no longer attend any of the town's schools, the mother says.
She seeks an injunction permitting her son to go back to school. She is represented by Jeffrey Simes with Goodwin Proctor LLP and the National Center on Homelessness and Poverty.
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